Merger and acquisition deals in India highest since 2010

India's merger and acquisition (M&A) deals saw a 68.5% rise in the first nine months, the highest growth since 2010. M&A deals involving Indian companies grew to $44.2 billion during the nine months of 2016 from $26.2 billion during the same period last year, according to a Thomson Reuters report.

This is due to M&A deals such as with Reliance Communication and Aircel valued at $$4.8 billion in September, HDFC Standard Life Insurance and Max Life Insurance deal valued at $3.1 billion in August, Aditya Birla Nuvo and Grasim Industries in August valued at $2.8 billion and Jaiprakash Associates' Cement unit and UltraTech Cement in February which is valued at $2.4 billion, among others.

Source: Thomson Reuters report

Prior to this M&A in terms of deal value reached its highest in 2010 were it stood at $57.1 billion and was driven by industry consolidations and restructurings. The average M&A deal size for transactions with disclosed values reached $102.2 million during the first nine months of 2016, compared to $67.7 million from the same period last year, said the report.

The domestic M&A deals was up by a large 210.4% from over a year ago in terms of value and reached to $22.2 billion. In terms of domestic M&A deals this was the highest first nine months period since 2006, which had seen M&A deals a little higher at $22.7 billion.

Source: Thomson Reuters report

However, the process of these M&A deals still lie pending as the report states that completed M&A deals involving Indian companies was down 10.6%, as the deal value was $22 billion as compared to the first nine months on 2015.

Be that as it may, M&A deals have grown considerably in India, especially since global M&A deals have been falling down. Worldwide M&A deals decreased by 22% from 2015 levels to stand at $2.4 trillion during the first nine months. This is the slowest period for worldwide deal making in three years, according to Thomson Reuters Global M&A Financial Advisory Review.

In fact, the value of worldwide M&A deals decreased by 10% as compared to the second quarter of this year. The value of worldwide M&A announced during the third quarter of 2016 totaled $796.2 billion.